• ClickZ, Friday, July 14, 2006 12 PM

Most of the Web's biggest firms, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, and IAC/InterActive Corp., who are themselves rivals in various ways, sent a joint letter yesterday to every Senator hoping to get stronger Net neutrality language added to a telecommunications bill before it reaches the full Senate. Among other things, the letter says, "absent strong network neutrality provisions, consumers will no longer have the freedom to choose content from thousands of sources on the open Internet." The companies are hoping to guarantee that Net neutrality is preserved under law rather than at the discretion of the Federal Communications Commission; a previous amendment with neutrality provisions had been considered but defeated by the Senate Commerce Committee in late June. A two-tiered Internet structure would likely favor the video offerings being prepared by telecoms like Comcast and AT&T, who also provide Web infrastructure. As one activist says, "video is a key component to this," because ISPs have said they would command premiums from content providers offering video while offering their own video services themselves. Google, meanwhile has said it would file an antitrust suit against any company that tried to block its content.

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